The Commons Mural
Artist Statement
About
The Commons Mural project began as an attempt to increase asthetic appeal on campus, and create archival work that would increase over pride in the campus by the student body. The group was basically given a blank campus, so there was som initial difficulty in choosing a worthy topic for so public and artwork. We decided to make a cartoon-like, stylistic recreation of campus, each building displaying a representational characteristic which is indicative of what goes on in that particular building. For example, West Hall is painted with a paintbrush, a palette, and musical notes shooting out of the roof, clearing indicating that the building not only encapsulates different art forms, but is a source of pride for those who study there. This was the main factor in the group's decision to include all of the academic buildings on campus, because each student holds one of these buildings particularly dear to them. The group decided to use mixed media in the mural's creation, because the group has a variety of artists with divergent talents, enough so that we decided a blending of styles would be the most asthetically appealing. This includes painting, photography with photomontage, and electronically rendered images.
As a side note, this website uses and energy efficient color palette, one which uses only 3 to 4 more watts of than a completely black screen (white is included as an accent color). See The Low Wattage Palette for more details.
My Contribution
I was heavily involved in the design aspect of this project. I was responsible for a number of the initial building sketches, which remained relatively unchanged when transferred to the final piece. Check out the sketches to see some of my original drawings. I was also heavily involved in painting several of the realized buildings: check out paintings to see some of my finished work. I was also the one who suggested representation, stylistic renderings of each building.